Prime time could be up for Amazon
Amazon tricks customers into registering for Prime subscriptions and makes it too hard to cancel, according to a lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday. The “four-page, six-click, 15-option” cancellation process “not only frustrates users but costs them significant money”, the agency said in a statement.
The tech giant denies the claims, saying it is in fact “clear and simple” to avoid signing up to a Prime membership. The suit is the second the FTC has filed against Amazon in a month and one of the highest-profile attacks on “dark patterns” used by tech companies to shape user behaviour for their benefit.
WH Smith, M&S and Argos among 200 companies called out for underpaying staff
More than 200 companies, including top high street retailers WH Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos, were named and shamed for failing to pay their lowest paid workers the minimum wage.
The Department for Business revealed that more than 63,500 employees have been underpaid since 2013, with a total of almost £5m owed. The companies have been ordered to repay their workers and now face financial penalties of nearly £7m.
While the list included a mix of large businesses, sole traders and small employers, it was particularly galling to see a number of household names on the list. WH Smith for instance, which made a pre-tax profit of £63m last year, was found guilty of leaving 17,607 employees out of pocket to the tune of more than £1m, while beauty brand Chanel also featured.
The retailer stresses that it was a “genuine error”, stemming from a misinterpretation of the rules around reimbursement for staff uniforms. However, if our largest high-street brands can’t be trusted to pay their staff the minimum wage, what hope do staff have of being fairly treated in the labour market?
Salary disclosure at lowest level since records began
The proportion of UK job adverts including salary details has reached an all-time low since such records began.
Adzuna, the recruitment website, has been collecting data since April 2016. Adzuna found that just 50.9% of advertised vacancies included information relating to pay in May 2023, slipping from 51.5% in April, and down from 60.5% a year ago.
For the salaries that were advertised, however, the average was £37,750 in May, a hike of 0.2% from £37,658 in April, and 3.3% up on £36,559 last year.
Increasingly, job candidates are becoming picky about where they work. In the competition for talent, companies should be mindful of how they are perceived by potential talent, including in terms of their ESG credentials and inclusivity of their culture, which may stretch to transparency on pay. A survey carried out by Reed showed that 78% of UK job seekers would be deterred from applying to a company if it did not indicate how much a role paid.
European IPOs plummet
The number of venture capital-backed IPOs in Europe dropped sharply in the first five months of 2023. There have been just 12 public listings so far this year, according to Pitchbook. That’s far below the peak in 2021, when 208 European companies with a combined valuation of €103.9 bn went public.
The slowdown may be part of a wider trend for European companies choosing to list in the US. WE Soda, a Turkish manufacturer, pulled the plug on a planned London listing last week. The move has been blamed on more cautious investors on this side of the Atlantic.
